Published: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 12:14 AM.

Photo Galleries

One of NASCAR’s original beat writers will be honored today and Coca-Cola 600 fans can come to a Mooresville racing museum to meet several motorsports legends in the process.

Junior Johnson, Rex White and Buddy Baker are just a few set to show up at
Memory
Lane
Museum
from 2-6 p.m. to honor longtime motorsports writer Tom Higgins. Higgins will be talking about his new book “Racing Into the Past: Tales From the Glory Days: the 1950s and 1960s” and sharing stories with those whom he covered over the years on the NASCAR beat.

Higgins, who was at the museum’s opening and participates in yearly events, got his start as a sportswriter for the Asheville Times. He covered his first covered his first NASCAR Grand National (now Sprint Cup) event on July 1, 1956. By 1976, the
Brevard
College
graduate was covering NASCAR full-time.

“When Tom came in the museum — and we have over 160 vehicles in here, and a lot of racecars that Tom knew the history on — he would stand beside the car and tell you the facts about when that wreck happened or when that guy won that first-time race and so-forth. Like, for instance, we have the car that Terry Labonte won his first race in at Darlington back in the 1980s and Tom knows about that and he was at Darlington,” Beam said.

One of NASCAR’s original beat writers will be honored today and Coca-Cola 600 fans can come to a Mooresville racing museum to meet several motorsports legends in the process.

Junior Johnson, Rex White and Buddy Baker are just a few set to show up at MemoryLaneMuseum from 2-6 p.m. to honor longtime motorsports writer Tom Higgins. Higgins will be talking about his new book “Racing Into the Past: Tales From the Glory Days: the 1950s and 1960s” and sharing stories with those whom he covered over the years on the NASCAR beat.

Higgins, who was at the museum’s opening and participates in yearly events, got his start as a sportswriter for the Asheville Times. He covered his first covered his first NASCAR Grand National (now Sprint Cup) event on July 1, 1956. By 1976, the BrevardCollege graduate was covering NASCAR full-time.

“When Tom came in the museum — and we have over 160 vehicles in here, and a lot of racecars that Tom knew the history on — he would stand beside the car and tell you the facts about when that wreck happened or when that guy won that first-time race and so-forth. Like, for instance, we have the car that Terry Labonte won his first race in at Darlington back in the 1980s and Tom knows about that and he was at Darlington,” Beam said.

Allison, who always enjoys coming to the museum, said he enjoyed Higgins’ respectable reporting.

“Tom Higgins was one of the guys who followed the circuit. He was friendly and I’ve had some good times with Tom along the way and respected his reporting. There were a few back in the day that didn’t care about their own accuracy very much, but Tom did,” Allison said.

Fans can get a special treat with Rex White’s appearance today. The 1960 NASCAR Grand National Champion takes part in many of Memory Lane’s activities and is a recent NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee.

“I think we ran 50 some races that year and one of my greatest events was winning the championship. The largest race I ever won was the Dixie 400 in Atlanta,” said White.

White enjoys meeting fans and gets letters weekly including from places as far away as Germany and Australia.

“This week, I went to a NASCAR memorabilia store in Kannapolis, I’m going to come here to the Higgins book signing on Tuesday, and then will be at the (NASCAR) Hall of Fame on Wednesday night,” White said recently.

Memory Lane is open during the year but gets especially busy during race weeks in Charlotte. The Museum is located 30 minutes north of Charlotte in Mooresville, about a mile west of I-77 off exit 36.

Fans can get in to the event for $10. The price for children ages 6-12 is $6 and children under 6 get in free. Higgins will have print and e-book versions of his book available for purchase. Fans can get autographs from their favorite motorsports personalities and Gigi Dover (www.gigidover.com) will be on hand to provide some musical entertainment. For more information, visit the museum’s Facebook page and website at www.memorylaneautomuseum.com or call 704-662-FORD.